The present invention relates to satellite communication systems and, particularly to satellite performance monitoring systems.
A hub-spoke, spot beam satellite system faces many impairments that contribute to the end-to-end signal to noise-plus-interference (SINR) ratio of a given link. The most common contributions to the end-to-end SINR include uplink signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), downlink SNR, and internal system inference, such as that caused by other beams or other users in other beams. For example, internal system interference may result from other beams emanated from a multi-beam antenna of a satellite and/or may also result from interference from beams transmitted from other Earth terminals.
In a typical satellite system design, no one term dominates the overall link budget. From a perspective of network operation, configuration, and trouble-shooting, having access to measurements of the primary contributors to the end-to-end SINR, especially the uplink SNR, the downlink SNR, and the carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I) would be useful for optimizing the efficiency of the satellite communications network.
Accordingly, techniques for determining the primary components of the end-to-end SINR for use in optimizing the configuration of a satellite communication system are desired.